another day. But Death is like our other friends--he
is not at hand to do us a service when most desired.

"I have told you that I used to cry a good deal. Weeping, though a
relief to us in one way, by removing the pressure upon the brain, is
terribly exhausting when excessive, and I was very much wasted by it. An
incident occurred about the time I was just speaking of, which gave me
comfort in a strange manner. I used sometimes, when my work for the day
was done, to leave Benton with my German friend, and go out for a walk,
or to call on an acquaintance. All the sights and sounds of nature are
beautiful and beneficial to me in a remarkable degree. With trees and
flowers and animals, I am happy and at home.

"One evening I set out to make a visit to Mrs. ----, my old neighbor,
who lived at some distance from me. The path led through the fir forest,
and at the time of day when I was at liberty, was dim and gloomy. I
walked hurriedly along, fearing darkness would overtake me; and looking
about me as I went, was snatching a hasty pleasure from the
contemplation of Nature's beneficence, when my foot caught in a
projecting root of some tough shrub, and I fell prostrate.

"In good health and spirits I should not have minded the fall; but to
me, in my weak condition, every jar to the nervous system affected me
seriously. I rose with difficulty, and seating myself upon a fallen
tree, burst into tears, and wept violently. It seemed as if even the
sticks and stones were in league to injure me. Looking back upon my
feelings, I can understand how man, in the infancy of the race,
attributed power and will to everything in Nature. In his weakness and
inexperience, Nature was too strong for him, and bruised him
continually.

"As I sat weeping with pain and an impotent resentment, a clear sweet
voice spoke to me out of the dusky twilight of the woods. '_Don't cry so
much!_' it said. Astonishment dried my tears instantly. I looked about
me, but no one was near; nor any sound to be heard, but the peculiar cry
of a bird that makes itself heard in the Oregon woods at twilight only.
A calm that I cannot explain came over my perturbed spirit. It was like
the heavenly voices heard upon the earth thousands of years ago, in its
power to move the heart. It may make you smile for me to say so; but
from that hour I regained a degree of cheerfulness that I had not felt
since the day of my marriage to Mr. Seabrook. I did not go to Mrs.
----'s th